


This Is The Burden of Every Man

by Devilc



Category: Terminator Salvation (2009), Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Genre: Crossover, Future Fic, Gen, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-24
Updated: 2010-01-24
Packaged: 2017-10-06 16:24:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Devilc/pseuds/Devilc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years after he dies the second time, John Connor brings Marcus Wright back for a special mission:  Kyle Reese.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Is The Burden of Every Man

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bossymarmalade (maggie)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maggie/gifts).



> Cleaned up and expanded version of a short story from my LJ.
> 
> Title is from Metallica's "Some Kind of Monster".

"I need you to keep an eye on Kyle," John Conner says to him as soon as he's fully conscious.

"Huh ... what? Where am I?" Marcus says because he's got memories of infiltrating Skynet's base and talking to _It_ and then nothing. His body doesn't feel quite right, but he presumes it's a side-effect of whatever knocked him out and whatever painkillers they've got him on. "I presume the mission was a success, then?" He adds a moment later.

John smiles lopsidedly at him and fills in the gaps. Five years (!!) after he died (so John could live) the Resistance hacked a Skynet database and found well, Marcus Wright in there. (Seems Skynet used him yet again as the basis for yet another Terminator series, the T-1000. _Swell_.) The Resistance figured out how to get "Marcus Wright" onto an 888 series chip, plugged it into what was left of his old body (which they'd kept in storage for studies of their own), put in a power supply, gave him a few upgrades and ....

So he's Metal now. The thought makes Marcus want to vomit, even though he doesn't have a stomach anymore.

"We've ... converted ... other units, but sometimes they go bad," John explains. "I can't trust one of them with this mission, Marcus. Just you."

Marcus wants to ask why Kyle's so special to John, but this isn't the John Conner he died for, not anymore. This is a changed, haunted, _hardened_ man. It's all there in his eyes.

\----

Kyle's changed, too. He's a lean, tough, organized soldier. Hell, the first two weeks, he looks out for Marcus more than Marcus looks out for him. Being Metal doesn't make Marcus a soldier. Kyle teaches him what he needs to know.

\----

Marcus isn't actually glad to be Metal until the day they stumble on a house in the rubble that Skynet had used to interrogate captured Resistance fighters. One of them's Derek, Kyle's long-lost older brother. It's nothing for Marcus to pick Derek up and carry him back several miles to the nearest resistance aid station. It's everything for Kyle, though.

His own stupidity and selfishness killed his own brother. Saving Kyle's brother? It's a little piece of redemption in middle of this rather hellish Purgatory.

\----

Purgatory. Marcus was quite the lapsed Catholic -- obviously. Purgatory is the only way he can explain this to himself, the only way that makes sense, his only hope.

These are his trials.

He is being made ready for salvation.

Given his experiences, it's not logical to believe in Heaven, or Hell, or Purgatory.

He once heard religion described as the opiate of the masses. And fuck yeah, that's right. It's the only thing -- this steadfast belief that this _has_ to be Purgatory -- that gets Marcus through the days.

\----

Sometimes, during quiet times, as they huddle in some tunnel and rest and even try to sleep -- not that Marcus needs rest or sleep these days -- Kyle takes out an old, battered Polaroid picture and studies it. Finally, one night Marcus holds his hand out and Kyle passes it over to him.

It's a candid shot of a young woman, sitting in a Jeep, bright blue sky behind her. She's got shoulder length wavy light brown hair with caramel highlights in it. Her face is almost delicate, but something about the set of her jaw is very determined, and, she's thinking about something that makes her a little sad.

"Your mother?" he asks softly.

Kyle blushes and snorts, shaking his head. "It's ..." he rolls his eyes and sighs in that I-can't-believe-what-I'm-going-to-say-next sort of way, "It's John Connor's mother. He was going through some old stuff of his once, and I asked if I could have it -- the stories he tells about her -- she must have been an amazing woman."

"Yeah," Marcus says woodenly and passes it back as a great feeling of numbness washes over him, "an amazing woman."

He's got a feeling about this. And it's not necessarily a good one.


End file.
